The (new) Official PC building thread!

As for more noise, I'm dubious. Lots of fans, if well used, can be run at such a low rpm they're inaudible to me even at a close distance. of course, if they're not well used, there's the problem. The fact that my PSU fan and hard drives are the only things that are audible from less than 4 inches from my PC suggests that the Lexa, even while not a full tower, can get the case fan balance right.
With the fans that come with it, a decent power supply and a well made graphics card, it will possibly be the quietest PC you've ever owned.

 

sammorris,
You are always dubious when it comes to noise! LOL!! The NZXT LEXA BlackLine that he was looking at has 4 fans, not 5. There is no bottom fan like your's has! 120mm Front Intake, 120mm Rear exhaust, 120mm side intake and one 80mm exhaust on the top.

Since I didn't lose any money trying the fans previous to my installing the "Stones", it cost me all of $30 for the fans to do what I wanted and expected them to do. I can't imagine how much noise an Antec 900 makes, or the Thermaltake Armor either, for that matter. I sure as hell don't want either!

They can take those "Fluid Dynamic Bearings" and stick them where the sun doesn't shine as my Silenx is dying! noisy as hell when it's cold! No warranty either! Oh well, it's just for additional cooling for the NB Heat-Sink. I'll have to see if I can find another 40mm that's as good at moving air!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Well of course it's been changed manually. He said he overclocked it! lol

We were just discussing why after the OC the speed is lower and I said it was so because of EIST lowering the multi.

 

fair enough - I don't use either 80mm any more, too noisy!
As for fluid dynamic bearings - we established most silenx fans are rubbish, so I'm not sure you can blame that on the tech!

 

abuzar1,

My stupid! I thought he had said that he overclocked it to over 3.5+, and the numbers just didn't add up till I just noticed the 3.36GHz at the bottom! ROFLMAO! So either EIST , C1E or both are enabled! You are correct!

Sorry,
Russ

sammorris,

Sleeve bearings, fluid Dynamics and anything else you want to call them do not work well in very dusty environments like we have here! The dust is so fine that it get's into everything. Silenx, being a POS to begin with are just worse than others. once it runs for a few minutes, it liberates some lubricant and the noise stops! The advertised speed is 3000 rpm. The actual speed is 4500 rpm! Silenx in their attempt to fool people got it all wrong anyway! LOL!!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Haha no problem. I can remember many times when I thought I read the whole thing but I left out one of the most important part lol!

BTW you know whats weird? My temps have jumped from about 30C to 42-48C on the chipset! Today is a COLD day so I'm getting around 42C. I used to get less on hotter days!

I'm NOT looking forward to unscrewing my motherboard and taking the heatsink off to inspect it.

 

abuzar1,
I wouldn't worry too much about it. I know on my MB the springs that hold down the heatsink aren't strong enough. It takes no effort to unseat the heatsink and mess up the thermal paste! I've got to find some stiffer springs for it! minor problem! LOL!!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Thought that I would post a screeny of Everest again for the AMD rig. X2 3800 NO OC...lol

I was hoping that they would be a degree lower or so but NOT disappointed at all. It's been up for about 3 hours now but nothing other than surfing. lol.



For some reason the GPU temp doesn't come up. :S I remember the GPU temps showing up on the HOME version but I must be doing something differently I guess. ~

...gm

I'm having other issues as well. I think that I've gone over everything that I could think of and looked up but I"m not sure. My video drivers seem to be messing up. When I scroll it looks like the "quality" is terrible. The screen rolls is the only description really. I've uninstalled the drivers I don't know how many times. Tried just letting windows find something and no luck. Re-installed the proper nVidia drivers and again it seems like NO luck. I've done the GOOGLE thing and they basically all say the same thing. If any of you have an idea then let her fly. tia........ ;D

btw this is on the AMD rig with a BFG 7600GT OC. It worked well until about 2 weeks ago or so. It has me wanting to buy another card but I don't think that'll fix the problem at hand. lol. If you guys need more info let me know.

 

Last time I checked, fluid dynamics weren't quite the same thing as sleeve bearings, although a similar principle. I've owned a dozen sleeve bearing fans in my time, none of them have ever given me any trouble. I've owned a mere four Ball bearing case fans, and two of them have broken already. Personally I don't think you can individually fault either method, only the companies that make them. As for the dust, that may be a potential problem for your area I suppose, but for a large number of people, I don't think that's such a huge problem, I've certainly never heard of places being coated in inches of dust - if a property's left for ages it's more likely to just get damp. Good old british climate!

Greensman: That sounds just like what happens when you've no drivers installed. Perhaps your registry is a bit bugged from a driver install?

 

greensman,
Have no fear. I'm sending my forceware and coolbits package that I got from nVidia, sendthisfile. Blows all the others to hell on my XFX 7600GT! LOL!!

About 40 MB

Best Regards,
Russ

 

I have a XFX 7600GT as well...hint...hint...nudge...nudge...

I had problems with drivers on mine...couldn't even load UT3 Demo...restarted the computer every time it tried loading the game...finally the last Drivers from invidea...12/19/07 fixed it...give them a try...

 

Thanks guys. I'll get right on it. ~

btw have you seen this?? gigabyte HD3870

I may have to move my timeline up. lol.

....gm

 

Thats the 3870...that I would buy...however...I've read that the cooler is not all that good...
Don't listen to the idiot reviews on the Egg...the DDR3 is fine...
I believe the gigabytes are the only cards...not using....the reference board design...thus...they are a little shorter...then the reference based cards...which is a plus...

 

That cooler doesn't look that bad and it's a Zalman, right? I bet a little "alteration" or "addition" really of some AS5 or ZM-ST1 would make the cooler work a little better. ~

You get it first Lp and let us know how it does.

....gm

 

Lp531,

I found Forceware 93.71 to be the best. I tried both newer one and older but this package that nVidia sent me when I was having driver problems solved everything!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

according to cpu-z the cpu has been underclocked. yes the fsb is higher but the multiplier is only 6 as oppossed to 8. it appears to me to only be running at 2.520 ghz due to the lower multipler. if the multiplier was at 8, it would be 3.36 ghz. I wonder if speedstep or C1E is on and he isn't aware of it, or he lowered the multiplier by mistake.

regardless, according to the cpu-z screenshot the clock speed is only 2.520 ghz which is slower than stock speed. now if I see a screenshot of cpu-z showing the fsb at 420 mhz and the multiplier at 8 then I will be convinced it is oc'ed to 3.36 ghz. 420 x 8 = 3360 mhz. not that I'm doubting you bigwill but the screenshot doesn't say you're running at 3.36 ghz. it does show that the fsb has been raised but the lower multiplier has actually decreased the clock speed.

if speedstep or C1E is enabled, turn it off long enough to post a screenshot showing the clock speed at 3.36.

I have noticed that if I lower my multiplier to 8 and leave the buss speed set where it is (400 mhz), system properties will still show the clock speed at 3.6 ghz because the stock multiplier of my cpu is 9 and that's what the system properties is going by even though in reality and also according to cpu-z the clock speed has really been decreased to 3.2 ghz.

 

One of the reviews I remember basically stated "if you were just buying it for the Zalman Cooler...you would be better off to buy whats cheaper...and go after market"...
I believe the review was on the 3850 version of the card...I know they were not that impressed with the performance of the cooler...over the stock...single slot coolers...much less the reference dual slot versions...which they felt...were superior...

I wouldn't not buy it...just because of that...I would buy it for the durability features and the shorter design...all the reviews I saw...Loved the card...and praised the design...they just weren't...blown away by the performance of the cooler...I think most were...expecting more...from the temperature numbers...

@theonejrs

I will hunt them down...I'll load them...the next problem that I see...right now every thing is working...No need to Fix...if it ain't broke...and...UT3 is up and working...Got Sh!t to Kill...and Blow up...}

 

palit and gainswood also use a nonref design pcb, i read about another one too but atm i cant recall the maker.

@ mortt

that was what i was getting at, i to have noticed the same thing with some things reading the x9 even if i was running x6 so....

 

I read a review of the thermatake dual orb...on a 3870 reference board...and it put up some nice numbers...and fit well...I do not know if it fits the gigabytes...non reference design...

 

Oh no not again, I thought we settled that discussion. Yes he does have speedstep enabled lol.

As for the 3870 cooler the only reason you might think it is hot is because the cooler is ALWAYS stuck at 25 percent. What I did was download Rivatuner and change the speed from 25 to 50 percent. It doesn't make any more noticeable noise and it drops the temps from 50 to 40C idle.